(Flickr: Pete Jelliffe, creative commons license 2.0) Happy New Year! Well, almost. With the arrival of Advent this upcoming week, I’ve been thinking a bit about the benefits of following the Christian year. I’ll admit that this is a practice I once disregarded with sneers of haughty derision. But over the past decade, I’ve grown to see the liturgical year as one of the more important of our Christian traditions. Here are a few reasons why. It reminds us that we... Read more

(Photo: Flickr: By Paul Sableman, creative commons license) Opening Sentences The increasing speed of TV is a great contributor to the loss of imagination since the mind has no time to recover from the constant bombardment. How does this affect our ability to meditate on God in the necessary silences of worship? Are we able to deal with the ambiguities of God that force our minds to go beyond what is readily apparent? The loss of imagination is also related... Read more

Photo by Thierry Ehrmann. Available through Flickr via Creative Commons 2.0 License Are many of our favorite and most-enduring hymns set to tunes borrowed from “drinking” songs, “bar” melodies, or tavern music? No. Many of you are now saying, “But that’s not true! Everyone knows Martin Luther did it?” Nope. Luther certainly didn’t, nor did anyone else who made any meaningful contribution to Christian hymnody. Unless you happen to be a soldier in General Booth’s army, but I digress. The first... Read more

I’ve seen about a million posts this week about what constitutes an appropriate “Christian” response to Halloween. My own childhood having been during the height of the evangelical withdrawal from Halloween festivities, I think I have a pretty good perspective on how Christians should respond. Here’s my take: -Relax. -Let your kids put on costumes of their choice. Because costumes are not satanic. -Take them trick or treating. Because getting to know your neighbors is not satanic. -Avoid any local... Read more

(Photo: Flickr: by Jiaren Lau, creative commons license) I grew up listening to contemporary Christian music. I’ve still got the Michael W. Smith cassette tapes to prove it. For a Baptist homeschooler, there was really no other option, it seemed. Our church was also contemporary, but in the late 80s and early 90s, that meant we sang little choruses, a few early CCM songs (think Keith Green, Maranatha, that sort of thing) and some gospel hymn medleys, not the stuff... Read more

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Read more

  But, and my apologies to Matt Redman, but we’ve lost the “heart” of our worship gathering. And that’s cost us, and the world around us, so dearly. A Litany of Loss I once served under a pastor who liked to say that if we don’t change the way we worship to attract each generation, we’re telling the world it can go to hell. *Cringe* And we wonder why the church’s muscles continue to atrophy.   Read more

It’s about meaning. One of the things that I find puzzling about the whole worship conversation is all the put-on sympathy when it comes to worship practice. “You might prefer traditional worship, but I enjoy contemporary. Stop trying to force your preference on everyone else.” But everything we do in corporate worship has theological implications that are inescapable. When a church holds two services with different musical “styles,” the intention is to cater to various personal tastes in the congregation,... Read more

Anyway, Willard, it’s not that these hymn-singing churches sound so completely different all the time, it’s that we have a far greater repertoire, a broader tradition, and more combinations at our disposal. We don’t always delve as deeply as we should, and not all congregations have the same resources, but we have so many possibilities. Instead of a cover band, we have an organ. It can play loudly. It can play softly. It could sustain longer than we’d ever need... Read more

The false dichotomy of worship that fractures our churches into “traditional” and “contemporary” worshiping bodies has pitted old against new. This is detrimental in a multitude of ways, not the least of which is our congregational singing. Photo: Flickr, Forsaken Fotos, creative commons 2.0 Read more